Dominoes are a family of tile-based games. The pieces are rectangular tiles with square ends and are marked with a number of spots. The player aims to place as many tiles as possible before the other player can make the first move. This process is called blocking. The first player to reach a certain number of spots wins the game.
European-style dominoes
European-style dominoes are rectangular wooden tiles with ivory or bone pips. Typically, a set has 28 tiles. You can also purchase extended sets with more tiles. The double nine set is one of the most popular extensions. Regardless of your skill level, you can enjoy playing dominoes with friends and family.
The game originated in France and Italy in the early 18th century, and was brought to England by French prisoners of war. The object of the game is to build a cell of tiles, and each cell earns you a point. A graphic illustration shows the cell formations you can create using your tiles. You want to take advantage of all scoring opportunities. The first person to call ‘rocks’ or ‘pips’ loses the game, but other players’ tiles will score.
After dominoes reached Europe in the early eighteenth century, they quickly became popular. Unlike their Chinese cousins, European-style dominoes have no suits and no duplicates, and European-style sets have no blank-blank combination.
Blocking games
Blocking games are variations on the traditional game of domino. The goal of these games is to prevent your opponent from making a play by placing matching tiles side by side. These games can be played with two or more players. The player with the most points at the end of each round wins. The remaining tiles are placed in a “boneyard” and are not drawn until the end of the game.
The rules of Blocking games in domino are similar to those of Draw and Block games. In the first, the goal is to place the same pair of dominoes end-to-end. If the pairs of matching dominoes make a number greater than five, you score. The second game is called Draw. It is the same concept as Block, with the exception that the player who draws the first domino is the winner.
Scoring games
Scoring games in domino are different from one another, but they all involve blocking and scoring tiles. Some are simple block games, while others involve the use of pip counts to determine score. Others, such as Hector’s Rules, are complicated, and require a lot of patience. A common variation is the draw game, in which the player who did not call “domino” before laying a tile must pick up the extra domino.
Scoring and blocking games are two distinct types of domino games, and the strategy for each differs. While scoring is the obvious way to play, blocking games involve a different strategy, which relies on suit counting.